


if you’re lonely, come be lonely with me

by BAONIU



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Vampire, Angst with a Happy Ending, Awkward Park Jisung (NCT), Blood Drinking, Cliche, Domestic Boyfriends, First Meetings, Getting Together, M/M, Multi, NCT 127 Ensemble - Freeform, NCT Dream Ensemble-centric, Slow Romance, Urban Fantasy, WayV Ensemble - Freeform, chenle is figuring his feelings out, jisung is chenle’s happy little human, johnny is a dickhead, taeyong is godsent, wayv do clownery in the coven
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-03-01
Updated: 2021-03-01
Packaged: 2021-03-13 12:14:17
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 12,404
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29776005
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BAONIU/pseuds/BAONIU
Summary: chenle is an angsty vampire, jisung the clueless student happens to bump into him at the wrong time.
Relationships: Chittaphon Leechaiyapornkul | Ten/Wong Yuk Hei | Lucas, Dong Si Cheng | WinWin/Nakamoto Yuta, Huang Ren Jun/Lee Jeno/Na Jaemin, Jung Sungchan & Osaki Shotaro, Jung Sungchan & Park Jisung, Jung Yoonoh | Jaehyun/Suh Youngho | Johnny, Kim Dongyoung | Doyoung/Lee Taeyong, Kim Jungwoo/Moon Taeil, Lee Donghyuck | Haechan/Mark Lee, Liu Yang Yang/Xiao De Jun | Xiao Jun, Park Jisung/Zhong Chen Le
Comments: 12
Kudos: 25





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> hi! i almost forgot to write an author’s note :D im still working on my other fic ‘说中文’ but i recently binged twilight and couldn’t help myself IMFJFJGI so theres that 🧍🏻. kudos & comments appreciated!! happy reading!
> 
> i do not own nct, this work is purely fiction and only for entertainment purposes. please see tags for additional triggers.

a new school.

for the fifth time in a row.

jisung understood how necessary it was though, family matters. restarting over in a new town was the least of his problems, he barely knew the names of his previous classmates anyways. 

he swore up and down that social awkwardness would be the death of him, who knows? maybe it would.

“here’s your times table for the year, mr. park. and, don’t worry. i know you’ll fit right in.” his homeroom teacher stood and pat a friendly hand on his shoulder, sending him on his way.

fit in? trust jisung when he says that'd be the absolute least of his worries. that spot on the list was taken by figuring out where exactly he’d be spending his time at lunch.

stay in the classroom? go to the library? or maybe go to the store?

while contemplating in his head where he’d go for break time he barely had time to react to nearly being thrown across the hall from the force of colliding into another student.

he quickly stood to his feet, bending over to grab his schedule but a foot pressed down firmly on it at the same time.

jisung froze, panicking internally at the situation. of course his body reacted against his brain, quick to embarrass himself on the first day at a new school.

throwing himself into a kowtow as low as he could go he murmured out a sullen string of apologies in hopes that whoever he just smashed into would just let it go.

however, seconds passed by in silence until jisung heard a snicker over his head.

_so i'm not dead meat?_

lifting his head up slowly to see what was going on, three attractive males were staring down at him. one with disgust, another with his phone out. probably to capture pictures of jisung in helplessness.

and the other one, seemingly the leader of the trio (who he bodied like a dumbass) with a hardened expression.

“oh, he’s cute. let’s keep him.”

jisung grabbed his bag at hearing this, standing up and bowing once more to express how sorry he felt for not watching where he was going and turned to go on his way.

there was no way he was going to embarrass himself any more. what did they mean _keep him_?

a crumpled up paper ball hit the back of jisung’s head as he trudged down the hall to find his homeroom which he couldn’t locate without the help of his schedule.

freezing once more he turned slowly, his mouth moving faster than his brain’s motors. 

“i –“ he started inaudibly, one of the boys speaking over him.

“your schedule.”

before he could even blink, the trio took their leave, not sparing him a glance and disappearing into the empty hall.

he finally got to his homeroom after the weird encounter, the bell for the period ringing after he stepped into the class.

eyes were on him. being the new student and all, it wasn’t surprising to get this attention but it didn’t bother jisung anymore.

after he introduced himself to the class he was led to sit between the two students he now knew as lee donghyuck and jung sungchan.

class went on after he sat down and he tried his best to be as diligent as he could. after all, good grades was the least he could do for his struggling family.

not even a second after his teacher dismissed the class for break, donghyuck turned around in his seat and slammed his hands onto jisung’s desk. 

“hi, im donghyuck. if you want to survive this shithole, stick with me.”

jisung flinched at the impact and shoved his workbook into his bag, smiling politely he shook his head and grabbed his phone out of his pocket.

“sorry, i’m not really.. i’m not –“

“interested. yeah, he tends to scare off a lot of people so, sorry in advance. it’s nice to meet you by the way.” the taller male stood and stretched his limbs, leaving his bag on his seat and pulling donghyuck up by his hood to drag him somewhere. probably the canteen.

“he could make us so popular, you know!” he could hear donghyuck whine as he willingly let himself be pulled out of the classroom.

did he hear right? _popular?_ maybe as a laughing stock.

shoving his earbuds into his ears and plugging them into his phone, he stepped out of the classroom and stopped in front of a map on the wall that evidently showed where things were located in the school.

scanning the campus map, the rooftop caught his eye. he’s been in need of personal space ever since he got off of the bus for school.

so, without another thought he walked down the hall and took himself upstairs until he was in front of the door, opening it slowly in case it would get him in trouble for being up there.

once in the fresh air, he walked over to the ledge and sat with one of his legs folded in and the other dangling over the roof’s edge.

jisung clicked the volume button on his earbuds until he could barely even hear himself speak. almost four minutes later the song ended and a tap on his shoulder brought him back to reality, the force of his spin almost knocking him off of the ledge.

“careful there — i don’t exactly want a murder charge on my record.” donghyuck joked and climbed on beside him, sungchan following.

“oh, um, do you.. guys come here often?” jisung tried to make conversation to make up for his standoffishness earlier.

“hell no, i feel like i’m going to pass out if i look down one more time. i followed you up because i just have a feeling that you need someone.. or two.”

sungchan sighed from beside him and leaned back to look at jisung,”hey, he’s really persistent and i promise you he won’t leave you alone. he even grew on me.”

_maybe, some people to get by the schoolyear would be nice. its my last once before i get sent off to a university._

“hmm, okay. did you guys eat yet? that was fast.” he swung his legs over and hopped back to safety, taking his earbuds out to fully hear the two.

sungchan shook his head, coming down second,”no, we wanted to invite you to sit with us.”

donghyuck shakily hopped down from the ledge after sungchan and held onto jisung’s shoulder to balance himself. “more like you begged me to be extra nice because you have a huge cr..”

sungchan put his hands up quickly and shook them, his ears turning red as he stopped donghyuck from speaking any further.

jisung, being clueless of course, just pursed his lips and held the door open for his two new friends, finding his lips tugging into a subconscious smile at their hushed bickering.

and for the first time, jisung could probably boast that his first day at a new school was the best he’d ever had.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hi guys! i think im getting ‘update happy’ as i’m nearing the end of my english semester in less than two weeks :D less classes on my roster means more time to write for you guys! i’ve grown quite content with my little returning kudos family! keep bookmarking :D it makes me happy to know that the majority want more. my goal is to update everyday to every other and im trying to step it up as i have a lot of ideas up my sleeve for this fic! thank you for giving my terrible writing a chance and happy reading 🕺🏻🕺🏻. comments and kudos appreciated!!

the second day of school to jisung’s surprise was actually.. _enjoyable_

he never had anyone close growing up, the main factor of that problem being that he moved around too much to keep up.

“hey. what's on the menu today?” jisung met the pair at their new spot where they declared their friendships the day before and took a seat on the ledge.

“braised pork, cold noodles, tofu?” sungchan’s elbows perched against the ledge and tilted his head back to catch the sunlight.

donghyuck looked up from his phone and did a happy sort of shimmy at the news,“braised pork? my mouth is watering!” 

“should we head down now then? i wanna eat quickly so i can check my worksheet before biology.”

the group gathered their things and left the roof, making their way to the canteen to eat.

“you just started today and you’re already doing worksheets? you’re the son my mom wanted.” donghyuck’s eyes widened in shock, picking up a tray and handing it to the lunch lady.

jisung grabbed a tray and waited his turn beside donghyuck. sungchan had already grabbed a seat at an empty table, waiting for their arrival. “i’m sure your mom loves your flunking grades as much as she loves you.”

“i’m not flunking,”

his brow raised at that as he handed his tray over to the lunch lady, donghyuck’s lip quivering to quickly add onto the sentence.

“just.. barely passing?”

“that’s more like it.” jisung’s nose scrunched slightly as he laughed and shoved the smaller aside lightly with his elbow, bowing a thank you to the lunch lady and walking with hyuck to the table sungchan chose.

setting their trays down, jisung immediately grabbed his chopsticks and gave his braised pork to donghyuck who saw this as an invitation to squeeze him tightly and press a kiss to his cheek.

jisung struggled and finally broke free of the hug, touching his cheek offensively at the kiss. “donghyuck!”

“don’t wear it out!”

sungchan rolled his eyes, muttering under his breath while he turned his attention back to his phone,“damn you, you devil spawn.”

while donghyuck stuffed his cheeks, jisung dipped in the pair’s conversation with his two cents when needed and ate the remaining food on his plate.

suddenly, the door to the canteen burst open and heavy footsteps approached their table, all three heads moving simultaneously to look at the commotion.

“hyuck –,”

a sharp jawed male sat himself down next to sungchan and gave a single head nod to the two as if to greet them silently.

“lee jeno, i’m not talking to you. ever since you started hanging with the sociopaths, you never even say hi to us anymore.” donghyuck held up a hand of disapproval and turned his head the other to avoid the person jisung now knew as jeno.

“sociopaths?” jisung asked curiously and smiled tight lippedly at jeno who smiled back kindly.

sungchan snorted, tilting his chin up in the direction where three familiar males stood. “he means those freaks.”

they seemed to feel the table’s synchronized stare and flicked their eyes over to match their energy, one’s lips quirking into a smug smile.

“look at them. disgusting!” donghyuck’s lip curled in response and he turned himself back around to face jeno with an irritated brow quirked up.

“oh. i bumped into them on my way to homeroom yesterday.” he took a sip of his mineral water and faced the group again.

donghyuck straightened in his seat instantly upon hearing this,”how’d you come out unscathed? what the actual fuck.”

sungchan laid his head on his fist and closed his eyes, mumbling once more,”he’s right. one on the left, na jaemin, is some type of pervert. lock eyes with him and he’ll do something weird. middle one, huang renjun? total asswipe. acts like he’s better than everyone,”

jeno’s expression looked offended at that,”hey! you just don’t understand him, you haven’t even held a full conversation with him to know it’s what he’s really like.”

“here we go again. you wanna know why? cause he doesn’t give anyone a chance to _hold_ a conversation with him.” donghyuck rolled his eyes and began to go back and forth with jeno about the trio.

jisung on the other hand turned back around in his seat to look at the three, a person in particular. 

“and what about him?”

sungchan’s tired eyes opened instantaneously and he shook his head slowly. “zhong chenle. no one’s ever heard him speak. anybody can confirm this, our history teacher asked him to answer a question and he just glared at them until our teacher turned away and made us shove our face in books for the rest of the period.”

donghyuck cracked up at that, almost snorting water out of his nose. “bro, he was asserting dominance. think if i tried it, it’d get me out of homework?”

it was jeno’s turn to roll his eyes now and he picked up a tofu cube, chucking it at donghyuck’s head. “the only place it’d get you is the front of the school, doing wall squats until your legs spasm.”

sungchan and jisung’s eyes met at that moment, the two bursting into a fit of laughter at the image jeno’s words painted in their heads.

donghyuck ducked the tofu cube and raised an accusing finger at his group, his lips pursed inwards. “you miserable children.”

“so anyways,” jeno began and scratched his head as if he was thinking, donghyuck refreshing his throat with his drink as if he was getting ready to give a speech.

“jaemin and renjun asked me out.”

donghyuck spat his water out, coughing at the water that had gone into the wrong tube.

as multiple heads turn to watch the commotion, jisung grabbed napkins from his tray and handed them to his friend, patting his back to attempt to cease the coughing.

“jaemin and _who_ asked you out?” he whispered out with wide eyes.

sungchan eyes mirrored donghyuck’s as he bunched up jeno’s hood in his hand and yanked him close. “the asshat and his coquettish boyfriend did what now?”

jisung did admit that he felt a tad bit left out from the group’s shenanigans even if he was caught up with information from earlier, but nonetheless shook the feeling off as soon as it came to catch what was going on.

jeno pried his hands off of his hood and sucked his teeth, breaking out into a blush.

the three took turns looking at each other before nodding in understanding.

jeno had accepted.

“i can’t even believe what i’m hearing.” donghyuck signaled them to turn and look at the trio again but they were nowhere to be seen, probably leaving minutes ago.

“i believe you lot have something that belongs to us.” the group heard a voice speak from behind them.

nearly jumping out of their skin, there stood chenle, renjun and jaemin.

jeno however took this a signal to get up and return with the three before donghyuck could get out a snarky response. 

good idea. renjun’s mouth was too quick to keep up with and he didn’t want the people he was acquainted with to lash out at each other.

“you people disgust me.” donghyuck seethed, slamming his hands down on the table dramatically and storming out of the canteen.

sungchan sighed and shook his head before signaling to jisung to grab the extra tray and be on their merry way.

jisung nodded a goodbye to jeno, his eyes quickly diverting to the three beside him.

he locked eyes with chenle for what seemed like a minute and nervously broke the staring contest when sungchan took him by the elbow and pulled him away to leave.

_that was odd_ jisung thought to himself. it was as if chenle’s eyes captivated him and made his brain motor completely shut off.

or maybe he was being ridiculous.

──────

jisung eventually parted with his friends as a few minutes were left until they had to go to their next classes and frowned inwardly when remembering that he didn’t have time to review his worksheet.

on his way to class he was caught up to by jeno who started a lighthearted conversation with him as he figured out that they both were in biology.

“hey, if you need any help studying or have any questions with the work you can always ask me. i think i’m pretty reputable when it comes to biology!” jeno stepped into the classroom with jisung, pausing in the doorway to wait for his response.

“oh uh..”

“my ass, lee jeno.” another student pushed him out of the doorway giving a kind smile to jisung before pulling him to their shared table.

partner tables they seemed to be.

as jeno complained about being disrespectfully interrupted he dug out his worksheet and went up to his teacher, asking if he needed to correct anything since he just started the material.

mr. choi explained in awe to him that the worksheet was more than what was necessary and to keep up the good work, talking over other parts of his worksheet and jisung nodded every once in a while to show that he was listening but he couldn’t help but feel like someone was boring their eyes into him from across the room.

slowly diverting his eyes to catch the stare he locked eyes with chenle once more who appeared to be seated by himself.

looking around the room he also noticed that all the partnered tables were taken and the only available spot for him was beside chenle.

“keep up the good work jisung, you can take that empty seat over there and start taking notes today.” his biology teacher sent him off and began the class after everyone was seated and quiet.

sneaking a glance over to chenle he noticed he was sat rigidly and had a hand muffling his nose and mouth.

and it went on like this for the whole hour.

jisung pretending to only be focused on his work while he took glances at chenle who seemed to be covering his nose from a smell.

once the period ended, jisung was the first to leave, growing increasingly uncomfortable with how chenle was acting and went to the hall’s office to wait for the biology teacher.

he figured that he’d kill two birds with one stone if he could ask for extra help and also understand the curriculum. it would definitely win him a recommendation letter.. and he just needed something to take his mind off his bizarre experience.

while he was contemplating on what he should say, there were hushed sounds of arguing going on between two people behind him,

“is there really nothing you can do? i’d like to move to marine biology.” 

“but chenle,”

_chenle?_

turning in his seat upon hearing the name, mr. choi and chenle’s discussion quickly died down before picking up again.

“look chenle, you can change this class next semester but other classes are full right now and this is the only available one for you. i’m sorry, and you’re welcome to come by next time for any questions. i have a student in here waiting for me now.”

without another word chenle stormed off but not before glaring at jisung and swinging his bag over his shoulder aggressively.

mr choi then appeared in front of him with a lighthearted smile and apologized, placing paperwork on his desk and taking a seat.

“jisung! what can i do for you?”


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i’ve checked my (tf is this thing called again) analytics?? to see how my fics were doing and even though 说中文 has more views, i think its lacking the writing it deserves ): but i did see that this fic has subscriptions!! forgive me if i take it down some time this week!! i’m focusing more on this fic since my mind is exploding with different ideas. if you read my author notes, you should’ve seen last chapter where i mentioned my updating goal would be daily to every other day 🧍🏻 i just wanted to let you guys know that i release chapters at 23:59 on the dot so if you all want to set an alarm or maybe even mark a reminder for that on your phone, you’ll be one of the first people to see the latest chapter :D but enough rambling ohmyfo i talk SO MUCH IFMCJFJ!! please keep bookmarking and subscribing to see updates on this fic! thank you so much for all the reads so far and i’m excited to bring more to the table. happy reading 🕺🏻🕺🏻. 
> 
> kudos and comments appreciated!!

several days passed since he last saw chenle, slowly growing accustomed to the cold empty seat next to him.

but soon, days turned into weeks and jeno had disappeared from the class as well, leaving his peers confused about his whereabouts since it was rumored to only be normal for chenle to disappear regularly.

whatever was going on, donghyuck refused to take lightly. he claimed that it _just wasn’t like lee jeno to cut school like this_.

but all that fuss was cut shortly when jeno came into school that day, looking, walking, talking and even breathing like a new person. and as if anything could get better for donghyuck, jeno even strode around proudly with his two new boyfriends.

it was no surprise that he became a trending topic in less than an hour. from his new platinum blonde hair, to his new boyfriends and to his new attitude it all seemed too suspicious to jisung.

“hyuck, i brought your favorite. cream bread!” jisung tried and laid the treat in front of his head which was currently laid down sulkily on the canteen table.

“he’s been like this ever since he heard about you-know-who’s arrival.” sungchan popped a piece of gum into his mouth, offering jisung a piece who accepted gladly.

as the artificial watermelon flavor burst across his taste buds he attempted to comfort his friend, opening up the cream bread package and holding it up to donghyuck’s lips.

donghyuck not being able to resist his favorite snack of course took a bite out of it and chewed like a kicked puppy. 

jisung broke out into a smile at that and pat his head, sungchan even stretching a hand out to stroke his hair.

jisung never knew what it felt like to lose a friend, after all these two were his firsts.

“9:00.” sungchan muttered, averting a lazy stare to the group that entered the cafeteria and jisung couldn’t help but turn and notice just how perfect the new lee jeno looked in the odd group.

donghyuck’s little body however only began to shake with anger. he knew that 9:00 significantly meant jeno was here and he was ready to give his boyfriends a piece of his mind and maybe a knuckle sandwich while he was at it.

“lee donghyuck. don’t you dare.” sungchan said all too knowingly and gestured to jisung with his eyes to hold him down. 

but it was too far gone. too late.

donghyuck’s seat scraped ugily against the linoleum floor, successfully gathering the attention of others as he charged over to the four who sat unbothered at his appearance.

jisung and sungchan clambered out of their seats and over to donghyuck before things got too out of hand but before they could even stop him he was already yanking jaemin up his blazer and pushing him accusingly.

“what did you do to my best friend huh? he hated you all! he despised you! and now he’s fucking clinging to you all like a baby chick!”

jeno stood from his seat, pushing him away from jaemin who seemed to be grinning ear to ear at the situation, “donghyuck could you please just fucking stop? you don’t know them. you don’t know.. a thing! so just leave us alone. leave _me_ alone.” 

jisung could agree that the stupid look jaemin had plastered on his face was patronizing but he dared not to interfere with their argument. 

he didn’t know anything either.

donghyuck stood his ground, taking a hold of jeno’s arms now and looking him in the eye with a fiery intensity. “then talk to me damn it! help me understand what’s so good about these fucking freaks! you’ve changed jeno, you’ve changed and i know this isn’t you.”

“help you understand what? how you just don't compare to them? is that what you wanna hear? ‘ _those freaks_ ’ know me in ways you’re just not ready to understand yet. what’s more to it?” jeno shoved him aside again.

donghyuck clearly wounded by this, stumbled backwards, tears filling his eyes as his lips pursed inwardly. “you want me to leave you alone? fine. but don’t change your mind lee jeno. you’re dead to me.” 

running off, jeno’s body moved as if he wanted to follow but renjun cleared his throat and jeno stiffened, quietly submitting and taking a look at jaemin as if he was the one who was hurt.

sungchan snapped jisung out of his analytic trance by placing a hand on his shoulder and spoke softly,”he can’t be too far off. meet you after school at our spot right?” he didn’t even wait for a response before walking off, bumping shoulders with jeno’s harshly on his way out.

jisung unsure of what to do, shot a small look of disappointment towards jeno and exited the canteen, deciding quickly to just go ahead and head to biology.

to his surprise, there sat chenle, alert almost as if he was waiting for his arrival.

jisung feeling conflicted hovered in the doorway for a few seconds before gulping down his nerves and heading to his seat consciously.

“hello.”

taken aback, jisung whipped his head to the source, his mouth opening and closing like a fish out of water.

“i’m sorry for not being able to properly introduce myself. i’m zhong chenle.” chenle spoke lowly, his voice sending odd comforting chills down jisung’s spine.

jisung blinked twice, clearing his throat and forcing himself to neutralize his surprised expression,”i’m –“

“park jisung. we had an.. altercation the other day?” his pale lips stretched into a warm smile.

“you mean two weeks ago. where have you been?” jisung found himself asking firmly. he had a right to know since he had to complete assignments specifically targeted for a pair.

chenle paused, smile never faltering,”oh yeah. family issues. i hope you don’t mind me asking for help? i wanna catch up.”

“not at all. i took notes for you. let me get them.” he murmured and reached into his bag blindly, pulling out a journal and sliding it over to him.

before any of the two could get another word out, mr. choi and a few other students filed in and he began the lesson plan for the period.

“today’s lesson will be all about cell phases. and remember, exit tickets are to be handed in or you cannot leave!”

the students collectively let out noises of complaints as he began to pull up the presentation but nonetheless got started on the notes, giving chenle an opportunity to talk to jisung again.

“how are you liking the school?”

jisung looked up from his notebook with skepticism. chenle had always ignored him, why was he acting nice now?

“i think you should focus on your notes, swouldn’t wanna write any more for you since you weren’t paying attention.” jisung turned back to his paper and copied the screen, going as far as doodling illustrations and highlighting the paper as well.

although, chenle wouldn’t take his rejection for an answer and continued pressing, leaning closer to take a look at jisung’s notes. “you like to draw?” his dark brown eyes flicked between the colorful page and back up to jisung’s flustered face.

“i, yeah um –“ 

the latter leaned back into his seat with a short head nod and started scribbling down random notes from the screen, giving jisung space to get comfortable again. “so what’s after school?”

finishing up his notes, he got out a blank sheet of paper and began doing his exit ticket. “how did you..?”

“what’s afterschool?” chenle asked again, shoving the paper into his bag along with the journal and turning his full attention to jisung who felt like he was sweating buckets under his fierce stare.

jisung kept it brief, not completely giving himself away,“just hanging out.”

“oh. with jung sungchan and lee donghyuck?”

the bell signaling the end of school finally sounded out, students throwing their exit tickets down onto mr choi’s table and scrambling out of the room, probably to meet with other friends or get to the store before it became crowded.

“it’s been _really_ , really nice catching up with you chenle. i have to go now though. i’ll see you around.” jisung packed up quickly, handing in his exit ticket to mr. choi and dashing upstairs to meet with his friends.

_why was chenle so interested in me today? how’d he know i was busy afterschool?_

numerous thoughts raced in jisung’s mind as he bursted through the door to the roof, making an apologetic face to his friends as they slightly jumped from the loud noise.

“you guys,” jisung threw his bag down and collapsed on the floor next to donghyuck.

“will never believe what happened last class.”

──────

“oh just fucking great. the whole group is after you now.” donghyuck muttered angrily as he tugged his hoodie up and over his head, changing into a more casual tshirt.

this was something the group now did. every day after school, they’d head up to the roof and change clothes then come back down and go to donghyuck’s house for dinner.

“i hate to admit it jisung, but hyuck is right. you’re well off without them. i heard they’re associated with some shady group.” sungchan unbuttoned his slacks and slipped into sweatpants, giving a look of sympathy to jisung who was putting on his shoes.

jisung’s mouth thinned, pursing up seconds later,“it’s not official. and it’s just a rumor.”

“better to be safe than sorry. i mean, look at jeno. they _changed_ him jisung. and they can change you too.” donghyuck grabbed his bag and headed out without another word.

sungchan and jisung shared a knowing look before getting their things together and following after.

just then it was decided. if it made jisung’s friend content, then he’d stay away from the ‘ _freaks_ ’.

once situated in donghyuck’s room from the short walk, jisung laid out his homework and let the two copy while he checked out instagram for any new news.

“hey, are you guys going to the greenhouse field trip?”

donghyuck shut his closet door to look at jisung,“greenhouse?”

sungchan looking up from his homework in sync,”field trip?”

“environmental science invited us all out. check IG.” jisung sent the post to their group chat and went back to scrolling disinterestedly through his feed.

“we’ll all have different busses though. what's our plan?” sungchan threw his phone down after viewing the post and continued to scribble down answers onto his own sheet.

“bus numbers, friend location on, boom. how hard could it be?” donghyuck flopped onto the bed with a bright grin.

“ _how hard could it be?_ ,” mocked sungchan. he was currently walking in circles to find jisung and donghyuck who seemed to have already found each other and was growing irritated each moment the map went off course.

jisung and donghyuck were waiting at the entrance of the greenhouse, wondering where sungchan could even be since his bus was already parked and students were all filing in.

donghyuck had a hand on his hip, his other hand being occupied by fanning himself off, “sungchan is six foot two, you’d think that he’d be the first to find us.” 

“how about.. i go look for him? you can go in now since you’re sweating buckets and just tell us which exhibit you’re at.” jisung suggested and tucked his phone into his pocket, already walking backwards slowly to get a head start.

“‘kay. meet you in a bit.” donghyuck sprinted inside, his shouts of relief echoing amusingly down the hall.

jisung cracked into a smile at that and turned face forward to continue his mission, his breath caught in his throat as he almost smacked his lips together with chenle who was standing ever so steadily.

chenle’s lips quirked up,“we’ve gotta stop meeting this way.”

quickly regaining his breath, he staggered backwards, letting out profuse apologies and bowing his head up and down until he felt dizzy.

“i’m so sorry, i’ve gotta go –“ jisung’s face heated up as he stepped around chenle and began speed walking around to look for sungchan.

finding him after five minutes, he was able to calm down within that timeframe and desperately dropped his head on his shoulder, banging a fist on his chest.

“i can’t. get. a. break!” 

sungchan’s ears began to turn red at the intimate touch and not knowing what to do, awkwardly pulled him closer and rubbed his back. “w-we shouldn’t keep hyuck waiting. let’s talk about it later.”

jisung nodded at this and removed himself from sungchan, stepping to his side and making conversation with him whilst the taller snuck admiring glances down at him in between.

as instructed, donghyuck called after a while and gave the exhibit name to the two, bringing them all together in a matter of three minutes.

donghyuck brought his arm up high and laid his elbow on sungchan’s shoulder, the height difference looking entertaining from another person’s point of view,“sungchan, i once thought that being tall was a blessing. but seeing what had happened today, you proved me wrong.”

sungchan shrugged off donghyuck’s elbow, the shorter spinning around dramatically and knocking back against the wall. “what have i ever done to deserve such terrible children!”

jisung shook with laughter at this while sungchan fought a smile and rolled his eyes playfully,”hey, i’ve been such a good kid!” 

donghyuck rushed back over to the group, squeezing jisung’s cheeks and shaking his head around like a child would do to a puppy, cooing,”of course you have jisungie! you’re my _only_ good son!”

jisung’s face heated up in embarrassment from some of the stares they were receiving and knocked donghyuck’s hands off.

“hyuck!”

“oh please do go on, _hyuck_! the show was just getting started!”

the trio turned to see renjun and jaemin, the two of them laughing contemptuously at the three now visibly exasperated boys.

sungchan placed a hand donghyuck’s shoulder, shaking his head and shoving him behind his tall frame so jisung could hold him back from starting anything.

jisung held on to donghyuck tightly, calming him down with encouraging words while sungchan stepped up to the two.

“i’m not in the mood to knock your shrimp asses down. just get out of here.”

jaemin only took this as a challenge and stepped up to him as well, grinning wolfishly,”no, no. enlighten me! i’d like to see you try.”

things were getting more heated as jaemin and sungchan were now in a staredown, both waiting for the other to make a move.

“you’re not worth the suspension. i’ll be on my way.” sungchan turned, signaling the others with a sharp chin jerk upwards to start walking.

“ah, just like you aren’t worth your _jisungie’s_ attention? i mean, what are you even chasing after? he doesn’t want you.” 

renjun instigated with a laugh,”ooo, i think you just hit a nerve!”

sungchan could feel himself shaking when he turned around slowly, shoving jaemin back and unintentionally gathering the attention of bystanders.

rushing to the scene with chenle walking idly by, jeno grabbed jaemin’s shoulder and yanked him back, eyeing chenle to hold him.

“you should really put your dogs on a leash. look how fucking noisy they’re barking. _woof woof woof!_ ” donghyuck sneered at jeno from beside jisung.

all of a sudden, it was as if time slowed and renjun was lunging at donghyuck, a scowl etched on his face.

chenle sighed, cutting through the tension in the air like a sharp knife,“enough.” 

and like a puppy scolded by their owner, renjun stood down, his teeth clenched defensively. “you’re so fucking lucky today lee donghyuck! you watch your back.”

donghyuck snarkily turned around so his back was facing renjun and placed a hand on his hip to accentuate his waist,”and while i’m at it, _kiss my ass_.”

jisung couldn’t help but snort at this, slapping his hand over his mouth when all eyes turned to him.

“alright, we’re done! let’s get out of here.” sungchan clapped, sensing the awkwardness in the air and wrapped two tight arms around his friends, striding and pushing past the crowd to get to another exhibit but not before turning to spit before the feets of jeno and his new group.

this of course had jisung and donghyuck howling with laughter on their way to another exhibit. once far away enough from the scene they high-fived each other, laughing again at their stinging palms.

“what are we?” 

“forever!”

“better?”

“together!”

the three rolled into a fit of laughter again, clutching their stomachs and wiping their tears of joy away.

donghyuck took a breath to speak, “that was so fucking corny!”

but jisung wore a smile that refused to reach his eyes, jaemin’s words replaying in his mind.

_what are you even chasing after? he doesn’t want you._


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> GUYS OMGJFIF IM SO SORRY!! my late update is on me, for my subscribed babes, i’m so sorry for keeping you all waiting ): after today, im going to start prewriting chapters because believe it or not i literally write a new chapter every day IMSCJIDJF hence why i am late now because i was taking notes for hours in one of my classes.
> 
> thank you to the people giving me kudos! i truly appreciate it and remember to keep subscribing and or bookmarking!
> 
> i’m sorry again for the late update but pls excuse me with this chapter! took a few rushed hours to write and an hour and thirty to edit and rearrange so if you see some out of place typos, thats why ISJDHJA!!
> 
> happy reading 🕺🏻🕺🏻!! kudos and comments so very appreciated!

as if it were a punishment from the deities above for fighting unnecessarily yesterday, the heat picked up scaldingly on the day that students were required to have a gym period.

of course the athletic kids were ecstatic about this but jisung and donghyuck were far from it. sungchan on the other hand was playing a heated match of soccer with a few students jisung wasn't well acquainted with.

“look at him. how could he be happy about sweating excessively out here?” donghyuck squatted down and balled up some grass in his hand, ripping it out of the ground exasperatedly.

jisung stood on the other side of him, watching semi-fondly as sungchan lunged in front of the goal and slapped the ball away, earning a loud hoot of victory from his teammates.

donghyuck jumped around, waving his hands in front of jisung’s face to snap him out of his trance,“oh, _bitch_ you like him don’t you?”

“what? no – i..”

“you?”

jisung broke out into a shy smile, turning away from donghyuck’s teasing grin. “no one’s ever liked me before. is it childish of me to reciprocate this way?”

donghyuck’s face fell, his eyebrows raising in surprise,”this is concerning,”

“is not!”

“is too!”

“is. not!”

their bickering was broken up when sungchan jogged up to them, dripping with sweat from the intense game.

jisung’s eyes nearly quivered as he raked the taller’s appearance up and down.

“you guys look the same as you did since you first stepped a foot outside.” sungchan snorted and grabbed his water bottle the two had guarded carefully while he played.

donghyuck elbowed jisung out of his frozen state once sungchan was more focused on hydrating and gestured over to something from behind sungchan with a sour expression.

sungchan however seemed to notice the tension in the air and followed the direction of stares from his two friends, rolling his eyes at the scene.

chenle’s piercing gaze never faltered once as he stared past sungchan and held eye contact with jisung for as long as he could.

donghyuck quickly caught wind of this and grabbed sungchan’s arm, yanking him in front of jisung so his broad shoulders covered up their sight from the group. 

“our personal human shield!” donghyuck joked, screaming and ducking once sungchan took a playful swig at him.

the three were soon able to carry on with their normal foolery and donghyuck and sungchan spent the next twelve minutes arguing about completely random food myths and conspiracies. 

jisung’s eyes eventually found chenle’s tantalizing stare once again, their conversation fading into something of background noise in his brain.

“its just a load of bullshit! what do you think jisung?” donghyuck and sungchan turned to him, clapping and snapping their fingers like he was a disobedient puppy when he failed to react or respond.

sungchan placed a warm hand on his shoulder, shaking with intensity for a few seconds before turning to see what was keeping him and snorted.

“it’s one of the freaks.” he pointed a finger to the group to alert donghyuck.

both groups immediately stared back at each other with intensity, neither of the members backing down from the heated imaginary competition.

jaemin was a wildcard however, taking it against himself to make a sexual gesture to the three males.

donghyuck looked away at that, leaning over to gag and started ripping out tufts of grass, throwing them everywhere to exaggerate his disgust.

sungchan and jisung followed shortly after with looks of disgust, their faces morphing into ones of joviality once donghyuck accidently got a blade of grass in his mouth from overreacting.

donghyuck cupped his hands over his mouth once recovering and shouted in their direction,“hey! did your mom drop you on your head na?” 

jisung rolled over to his side, choking on his laughter as sungchan too turned his head, trying to hide his amusement but his shoulders giving him away from moving up and down rapidly.

renjun copied donghyuck’s motion from earlier replying back spitefully,”i'm sure your mom did! after all, you came out looking like _that_!”

and the trio couldn’t believe their eyes, jeno had thrown his head back, clearly finding renjun’s words amusing.

jisung knew it wasn’t his place to intervene but oddly enough felt offended to have someone who hurt his friend and even seemed like an upright person at first, find that remark funny.

deciding to cup his mouth as well, donghyuck and sungchan started clapping, stomping around with laughter before he could even get a word out. jisung couldn’t help but laugh a little into his reply too.

“lee jeno, you wanna know what’s even funnier? having two cocks completely change my life to the point where i get referenced to pokemon! _which personality should i choose today? betrayal for six minute sex i choose you!_ ”

the three were rolling around at this point now, holding their stomachs from guffawing so hard.

chenle’s stoney expression faltered for a second, his lip quirking up upon listening to jisung’s crude comeback.

jaemin’s mouth moved for a second to reply but sungchan beat him to it. donghyuck ran into the gate behind him and collapsed from his body quivering from laughter, sending jisung into another fit of boisterous laughter.

“stay out of it na! we’re being considerate!”

renjun scoffed at that, waving them off now but jaemin wouldn’t stand down.

quite literally.

he was up out of his seat before the blink of an eye was made and strode over to sungchan.

donghyuck’s laughter died down as quickly as it started, rising as well to step in front of sungchan.

“oh, don’t tell me the little kitty can’t take a _joke_ now?” he sneered, pushing jaemin back with a free hand. jaemin however only seemed to grin at this.

whenever sungchan referred to the group as freaks, jisung would remember that this was one of the many reasons why.

_he really is freaky. he looks like he’s enjoying this._ jisung thought to himself and shifted uncomfortably beside sungchan who laid an arm around his shoulder protectively upon noticing this.

the situation escalated faster than the last two times and jisung’s intuition began bubbling in his stomach, ready to burst.

“jaemin.” chenle warned lowly, his eyes flickering between jeno and renjun’s scarily knowingly.

“stop babying him. if he wants to hit me back let him do it. i’ll _fuck him up_.” donghyuck shrugged calmly and crossed his arms.

“hyuck.. i don’t think you should do it this time.” jisung reached out but sungchan’s hand shot out to gently grab it and push it down.

“what are you waiting for jaem?” renjun crowed impatiently, smiling strangely up at sungchan and jisung.

“wow that’s too bad. i was really looking forward,” donghyuck mumbled stubbornly, turning around to leave but twisting back around mid sentence to land a surprise hit on jaemin.

jaemin calculated this movement, grabbing donghyuck’s fist with his delicate fingers and lightly squeezed it in his fist.

the motion at first got a snort from sungchan who shook his head. “hyuck, he’s playing with you.”

but donghyuck was turning red and quivering, his caught fist making an ugly crunching sound. 

sungchan’s hand dropped from jisung’s shoulder and jaemin looked up, clicking his tongue. “i’ll break his arm if you do so much as make a single move.”

renjun clapped with sheer amusement as donghyuck started shrieking with pain, trying to tug his fist away.

jisung couldn’t look anymore and hid his face in sungchan’s shoulder, his eyes closing,”stop it. stop! _please_!” he yelled frustratedly.

chenle’s nose let out a single huff of air,“ah, what happened to _’stop babying him’_?”

sungchan pressed jisung closer to him, clearly getting pissed off since every passing moment donghyuck was only screaming louder and all five fingers were most likely already broken. “just cut it out already. it was all just a joke. fucking freaks.”

jeno placed a calm hand on jaemin’s shoulder and instantaneously, jaemin dropped donghyuck’s crushed hand. each finger looking gruesomely out of place.

sungchan shifted, his eyes glazing over with anger as donghyuck got up slowly and ran off choking on tears of utter pain.

jisung was still hidden in sungchan’s side as four against now two were in a clear standoff.

chenle being the leader took their silence as a finale and sauntered off without another word. 

collectively the rest of the group followed after him, jaemin turning mockingly to coquettishly wiggle his tongue at the pair. 

sungchan took that chance to leave as well and swifted jisung through different students to look for donghyuck.

_how did we not get noticed by a teacher? or students? how did we not get broken up?_ jisung stopped to detach himself from sungchan, not meaning to come off as rude as he did, and backed a few steps away before running off to look for the now obviously reputable _’freaks’_.

jisung might have been lacking in the social department and was _massively_ uncoordinated. but he was given a strong intuition to make up for those.

and he _knew_ something wasn’t right from the moment jaemin stepped up.

──────

finding the group after that was hard. 

students had begun to rush inside in large groups and pushing past the drained and sweaty kids earned jisung several swats of complaint.

“i’m so sorry! i’m sorry!” he apologized as he made his way to the back without finding a trace of any of the boys.

jisung’s head spun and he collapsed onto the ground, his stomach broiling with his strong intuitive thoughts again.

sungchan sprinted to the scene, yelling for him,“jisung!”

and just as though he were waiting for this moment all along, chenle came out, looking over at sungchan before peering down at jisung’s tired face. “looking for me?”

sungchan’s pace slowed to a stop he watched chenle take a seat next to jisung who jolted up quickly and gulped down the nonexistent lump in his throat.

“how did he do it?” jisung pressed firmly, his eyes falling to look at the trampled grass.

chenle paused for a little, dropping onto the grass in front of jisung to catch his sight. “what do you think happened?”

“jaemin hurt my friend, and you have the _nerve_ to play around right now?” jisung’s head snapped up to avoid the stare, catching sungchan turning away and sprinting off as soon as their eyes met.

he’d have to explain himself another other time.

but right now, he demanded answers. he couldn’t avoid what happened since he was a witness and needed to confront one of them if legal action was ever going to be taken.

jisung knew that donghyuck would never cause a scene and would most likely go home and tell his mom a lie to cover up the fact that he’d initiated the fight in the first place.

“jaemin, a delicately built eighteen year old, broke donghyuck’s fingers and his palm bone, chenle. with a light squeeze of the hand.”

“donghyuck started it first.”

“chenle.”

chenle stood up suddenly, jisung shooting up after him before he could try to leave and disappear again.

“yeah well, no one’s ever gonna believe whatever you thought it was. could you just let it go? your own hand is fine.” he spat and marched off.

jisung didn’t follow, threading his hands in his hair in an anxious manner.

he knew something was off. but who could he tell? who would believe the boy who couldn’t even form a sentence in front of a class without stuttering profusely?

chenle was right, no one would believe him.

nevertheless, jisung knew better than to just throw this situation under the bus. years of crappy home life prepared him for situations just like these.

“i’m doing this for hyuck,” he whispered to himself repeatedly as he sped back to the building.

he was doing it for donghyuck, his first friend. _not_ for himself.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> and we’re back on schedule! hi guys :D 
> 
> i have an update on 说中文, and i’ve decided to unpublish this book until further notice huhuhu ): i know i’m sorry to the subscribed people but it’s just too cringey so i’ll be picking it back up when i’m about finished with this fic.
> 
> i know a lot of you might be a bit too shy to comment on here but if you have any feedback or concerns about the character analysis or need more detail about whats happening in the chapter please don’t hold back i SWEAR i don’t bite! 
> 
> i spent 4 hours writing this chapter with as much detail as i could and spent twenty minutes editing so i shouldn’t really have typos i hope –
> 
> thank you to my kudos fam! please remember to keep subscribing and bookmarking for updates because the storyline is picking up! if you read the tag it says slow burn so this series is definitely going to take its time to go in depth with chenji and their building relationship.
> 
> happy reading 🕺🏻🕺🏻!! kudos and comments are always appreciated!

the next day at school was quite dull without the presence of donghyuck and set sungchan and jisung in an awkward position due to the events from the day before.

jisung still had some explaining to do to the taller but wanted to keep it to himself as long as he could before he got things figured out for himself – donghyuck, he means.

break time rolled around slower than usual and sungchan had invited his soccer friends over to accompany the two in donghyuck’s stead, jisung feeling slightly uncomfortable at the extra prescenses but managing to not seem rude.

“hey, jisung, right?” one of the guys asked, continuing when he nodded.

“all of us are going skating tommorow. would you be down?”

jisung played with fingers for a few seconds, pretending to think about it,”i, uhm. i don’t – don’t know how to skate. i don’t wanna ruin your guys’ fun.”

sungchan shook his head from beside him glancing over at him before continuing,”it’s not a competition or anything, just come out and have fun with us.”

sucking his cheek in a little, jisung let out a small noise of agreement,”okay. i’ll think about it and then let you know. we’re heading to hyuck’s after school right?”

sungchan checked the dry group chat, donghyuck not even calling them after the incident and visibly sunk.

“silence.”

taking this as a no, jisung stood and shrugged his shoulders.

“i’m going to go get lunch. whoever wants my rice can have it, i’m just gonna eat the tofu and kimchi.” he mumbled while the others began arguing excitedly about who should get the rice.

sungchan stood moments after, leaving to get his bag from homeroom after remembering that he hadn’t finished his homework for another class.

jisung was standing in the line with his tray and let the lunch ladies put the day’s dishes on, about to take his leave when chenle’s voice came from behind him.

“thats all you’re eating today?”

nearly dropping his food, he set the tray down on the counter and scooted out of the way so other students could get served. “you never even say hi.”

there was silence between the two for a moment before chenle mumbled a hello, eliciting an eye roll from jisung.

he grabbed his tray again and turned to walk away but sighed once chenle stepped in front of him and leaned against the wall.

“look,” he started lumberly. “i don’t think we should talk anymore.”

jisung stood in stupefaction at his words, an unfamiliar laugh crawling out of his throat,”should’ve made that clear the first day you decided to finally open your mouth my way.”

“no, you’ve got it wrong. i’m not trying to be impolite – “ 

“then what? are you ever gonna tell me what happened?” jisung snapped, putting his tray down again and crossing his arms.

“no. but, i feel a need to be with you. i don’t think i can keep away from you now.” chenle looked up to meet jisung’s eyes, almost as if he was trying to read him.

jisung almost couldn’t believe his ears at what came out from his mouth next. it was his problem. his mouth moved before his brain.

“then don’t. don’t disappear anymore. if you’re not gonna tell me what happened, i can drop it.” he lied through his teeth.

chenle sighed, eyes meeting with jaemin and renjun’s. diverting his attention back to jisung on time. “you don’t sound so sure.”

changing the subject to avoid showing his frustration jisung looked back at his table, the three boys staring in surprise at the sight.

“some friends and i are hanging out tommorow. skating rink. come? it’ll.. it’ll be fun.”

chenle looked amused at the invitation, only replying with his silence.

“what? don’t like skating?” jisung took his tray again, losing his appetite from the long chat and throwing his food out besides the rice he owed the lucky person at the table.

“it’s just a little crowded for my liking.” chenle declined kindly.

“ugh, there’s so much room in that lonely lane over there.” sungchan’s friend minho complained, finishing tying up the laces on his rollerblades and standing.

jisung sat criss-crossed on the bench outside of the rink and watched everyone else lacing up, shaking his head no another time at the offer of going on with them.

just then, sungchan walked up, stripping himself of his mini crossbody bag. “what’s with the sorrow filled look jisung?”

another boy he later knew as taehyun chuckled and leaned against the wall,”his date bailed on him.”

sungchan raised a confused brow upon hearing this and laced up.

“the zhong boy.”

snorting and slowly skating over to taehyun he playfully elbowed his arm,”he didn’t come because i’m here.”

minho poked his head in the waiting area with a noisy ear and ducked the swig taehyun took at him for eavesdropping,”good. you should’ve seen the way he was all over jisung. it’s creepy.”

jisung sighed standing and shoving his hands in his pockets, pursing his lips at their behavior. “i only invited him to be nice. who ever sees him outside of school?”

sungchan mumbled, gaining the laughter of his two friends,“i wouldn’t wanna see his punk ass anywhere.” 

minho and taehyun soon skated away after a while of talking, sungchan saying something about catching up with them in a second.

“jisung? i know you were trying to be nice. you’re really sweet. but please be safe for me. a – and hyuck. i don’t want another person i care about being injured.” he placed a warm hand on his shoulder and squeezed gently, jisung’s cheeks heating up at the action.

looking away to hide his red cheeks, jisung quickly nodded and shooed him away with one hand, claiming that he wanted to go get something to eat.

sungchan skated away after ruffling his friend’s light brown locks, leaving jisung to buy a box of pizza for the group with a large liter of soda.

sitting down and nibbling lightly on a warm slice of cheese pizza, he watched the four boys chase each other around childishly in the rank and even race each other in their lanes.

chuckling at their entertaining behavior he barely noticed when one of the boys whose name he hadn’t caught sat down and devoured a slice of pizza.

“jisung!”

snapping out of his short trance he looked over to the small male and waved a hi, putting his leftover crust from the first slice in a napkin.

“we’ve just recently got acquainted so you don’t have to answer this if you don't want to. but taehyun, minho, and i wanted to know what relation you and chenle have. we were really surprised to see him talk to you yesterday. but then again, you’re really easy going despite being so quiet.”

jisung nibbled on his bottom lip, scratching the skin on his thumb with his index finger. “it’s nothing. we’re biology partners and i had to take notes for him while he was out so he was asking something about an assignment.” he lied easily, nodding at the other’s expression.

“oh! then forgive us for thinking it was something else. he’s rejected everyone, we thought little shy ole jisung maybe had something for him.” he chuckled and waterfalled the pepsi from the tall bottle.

shaking his head profusely jisung smiled uncomfortably, a silence washing over the two for a while.

“don’t you think he’s a little weird? he’s as pale as a ghost and doesn’t speak much. kinda reminds me of one of the characters from that one anime, yknow, diabolik lovers or something like that. it was a hit for the girls here, gosh.”

jisung thought about it for a second, nodding along to his words,”yeah, that weird vampire anime. always found it weird.”

a silence climbed over the two again and deciding to stray away from the conversation before he brought up chenle again jisung stood claiming that he was going to try skating.

hooting at the decision, the smaller headed back into the rink to share the news with the others.

two minutes passed and jisung wobbled out to the rink, holding onto the bar for assistance so he wouldn’t fall.

sungchan rushed over and held his waist to hold him, jisung’s face heating up in embarrassment. minho seemed to notice from a distance and gathered the group’s attention, making kissy faces at the two.

sungchan’s ears turned a bright red at their joking and waved a hand at them to calm them down.

“you can let go now –“

“are you sure?”

“yes.”

jisung was released slowly, his long legs turning against him and quickly caused him to slip.

he closed his eyes, waiting for the impact that never came. opening his eyes to see what happened, his face was three centimeters from sungchan’s and their chests were pressed close together.

cheers and screams could be heard from across the rink from the three boys and quickly tore the two blushing boys out of their hypnotic state.

sungchan slowly stood him upright, whispering,”be careful.”

skating around for another hour, the group left the rink with full stomachs and joyful hearts at the fun day.

jisung admitted that he was glad he didn’t turn down the offer and rubbed the back of his neck shyly.

──────

“it’s getting late. do you want me to walk you home?” sungchan asked jisung after walking taehyun to his own home.

jisung shook his head quickly. even if donghyuck and sungchan were his closest friends, he didn’t think he would ever let them stop by his house. slightly afraid of getting judged for having to live with his aunt instead of his parents.

“are you sure? you don’t have any clothes at my house. i don’t mind letting you borrow some of mine of course, but they’re a bit big.” his brows furrowed inward slightly.

“yeah. it’s okay! all my sleep clothes are big on me anyways. it’s kinda hard to find tightfitting clothes when you’re this lanky.” jisung assured and started the walk to sungchan’s home with him in a comfortable silence.

“i really had fun today.” jisung finally spoke up after a few minutes, holding his hands behind his back and looking down at his feet.

sungchan smiled tenderly,”i’m sorry for minhyuk, taehyun and minho’s teasing today. they’re clearly still children.”

jisung laughed, stopping in front of sungchan’s front gate. “it’s okay. they’re funny people. might take some getting used to though, it’s like three hyucks in one sitting.”

sungchan just stood there smiling like an idiot, jisung reciprocating the smile as they looked at each other for a while.

jisung noticed sungchan shifting in closer to him and his body froze.

he’s never kissed, but he’s sure he’s watched enough movies to get an outline of how to do it but right now, in the moment, he's forgotten everything.

closing his eyes, he finally felt sungchan’s lips press against his softly and stay there for a few seconds, only pulling away once hearing his mom turn on the porch light.

“we should – we should,” sungchan fumbled, his ears burning again.

jisung reciprocated with a red face, his eyes shaking as they looked anywhere but the other’s face,“yeah.”

opening the gate, jisung stepped in after sungchan and closed it behind him, slipping off his shoes before entering and making sure to greet sungchan’s mom.

after shakily handling a glass of water at the sink, he followed sungchan upstairs and sat on his bed, pulling his knees to his chest and pulling out his phone to see if donghyuck was active.

sungchan came back into the room minutes later with a fresh pair of sweatpants and a hoodie for jisung to change in to, handing it to him while also stripping to put on his own set of clothes.

jisung thanked him and got changed, sitting on the bed again with sungchan in silence.

“it’s not too late yet, do you want to watch a movie or something?” sungchan broke the silence and grabbed the remote from his nightstand.

jisung hummed and scooted back into the headboard,“sure. i don’t mind anything by the way.”

two minutes later, their eyes were glued to the screen, sungchan choosing _goedam_. the jumpscares had only made jisung gasp every once in a while and laugh when sungchan would pat his head.

as the next episode loaded, the only sounds that could be heard were their quiet breaths and sungchan took the chance to turn and kiss jisung again.

once jisung thought he got the hang of it, he started to deepen the kiss, the two getting heated instantly.

sungchan’s long arms reached out to cage jisung in and moved to hover on top of jisung who was slightly panting at the heavy kiss.

jisung reached up to thread his fingers in the taller’s hair and panicked slightly when sungchan’s tongue breached his lips, jolting up and smashing his head against the pole of the bed.

“ _ow –_ ” he hissed and rubbed the back of his head, sungchan backing off and apologizing profusely.

“did i make you uncomfortable? i’m sorry –“

“no no – i just never.. you know. the tongue thing scared me. i didn’t mean to ruin the mood.” jisung rushed out, reassuring the latter that it was fine.

sungchan unsure nodded nonetheless and turned the tv off as well as the lamp,”well, it’s getting late. we should go to sleep anyway. my mom thinks it’d be nice to do a surprise breakfast drop by for hyuck.”

jisung agreed with a headnod and laid his throbbing head on the pillow, turning so his back faced sungchan.

waiting until he heard his breaths even out he turned to see sungchan fast asleep, taking the opportunity to grab his phone from the nightstand and quickly research the thing that has been bothering his mind all day.

minhyuk’s words replayed in his head from the skating rink.

_he’s as pale as a ghost and doesn’t speak much._

and well, it was true. jisung got to experience everything up close.

extremely thankful for the supernatural wiki page, he began scrolling curiously through different supernatural creatures until he found a link that took him to a bookstore that seemed to be nearby.

just then, sungchan shuffled in bed, whispering,”jisung are you awake?”

jisung stiffened slightly before relaxing and closing his eyes, breathing softly to make it seem like he was fast asleep.

and it must've worked because sungchan kept silent and fell back asleep again minutes later.

jisung’s eyes flickered open again, deciding to finally head to sleep since he had to be up bright and early the next morning.

the thought of the bookstore clouded his mind as he fell asleep, getting a feeling that he was slowly making progress with trying to get the right answers.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ...anybody home? IMDJCJDI IM SO SORRY FOR THE DELAY 😭 last week i was so stuck on chapter 6 and feeling a little lazy but here it is, the long awaited chapter 6!! 
> 
> 10 mins of editing and several several days of rewriting! pls enjoy :D
> 
> i wont update on saturdays and sundays because now i plan to utilize those days to do makeup work for school, plan out chapters for this fic and just take time to chill 🧍🏻
> 
> updating will go back to regular schedule by next week so look out for it by subscribing and bookmarking 🕺🏻🕺🏻. 
> 
> as always, until then, happy reading :D
> 
> comments and kudos are always appreciated!

jisung’s eyes flickered open hours later, sungchan’s nimble fingers working gently in his scalp to aid him in waking up.

“take your time to get ready, my mom is downstairs finishing breakfast for hyuck.” sungchan mumbled out while jisung took a moment to adjust to the serene atmosphere.

within a few minutes, jisung was up and brushing his teeth, the childish pororo spare making him laugh.

migrating back to sungchan’s room after washing his face and dampening his hair, he began removing the clothes he wore to bed last night.

“sungchan, do you mind if i take these home to wash? i’ll bring it back to you fresh that way.” he spoke to the occupied male while changing into his outfit from yesterday and slipped his hoodie over his head.

sungchan’s brows furrowed,”what? no. we can share clothes, right?”

“well yeah but –“

“keep them. you look better in it than me.”

jisung shyly pursed his lips and grabbed a pillow from the corner of the bed, chucking it at sungchan playfully. “don’t say that! i’ll return them tomorrow, okay?”

sungchan caught the pillow and set it back down, laughing at jisung’s timorous actions and letting out a sound of agreement upon getting his clothes back.

after a small while of comfortable silence, sungchan stood and rested a hand on his hip,“i’m gonna go help out, come down in a few.”

nodding, jisung watched him disappear downstairs from his peripheral vision and unlocked his phone to what looked like a million missed calls from his aunt.

jisung flicked his phone onto airplane mode once his phone lit up with yet another call from the elder lady and sauntered downstairs, greeting sungchan’s mother with a cheerful smile.

“jisung ah, help me fill out this wellness card, my handwriting isn’t the best,” sungchan handed him the card with a few colorful markers and tended to setting up the basket instead.

“what? sungchan it looks fine, you wrote out some sentimental things.” jisung complimented with adulation while decorating what sungchan couldn’t on the wellness card.

“foods ready!” his mom announced, peering over jisung’s shoulder in astonishment at the bright bursts of color on the paper.

sungchan shut the basket and let it rest on his arm, signaling to jisung to get the card so they could get going before the sun came down hard.

on his way to the door, jisung’s body nearly screenshotted as he remembered that he left his phone upstairs. “i’ll be back in a sec!”

rushing up the steps, he searched for it in the sheets, and tucked it into his back pocket then made his way out,“im coming!” jisung yelled, looking behind him to shut the door and jog down the steps to avoid delaying time any further.

sungchan waited for him at the last step with a placid smile hugging at his lips and engulfed him into a peaceful hug, resting his chin on the shorter’s head.

“i’ll miss you later,” he mumbled lumberly.

jisung laughed and pushed sungchan’s body away playfully,”we see eachother first thing in the morning, you’ll manage.”

sungchan sighed dramatically and broke out into a laugh after, ushering jisung to the door.

within fifteen minutes tops, they had made it to donghyuck’s home without breaking the slightest bit of a sweat, even in the blistering heat of the sun.

“it’s going to be too hot to wear a sweatshirt tommorow, sungchan. are you still going to wear one?” jisung broke the comfortable silence in a questioning tone and fit himself into the shade quickly.

“i get that question a lot. but truthfully, i don’t think i’ll ever come in full uniform, it doesn’t look that good on me.” he admitted and shrugged, knocking on the door.

mid knock, the door swung open and revealed their best friend in a hectic state, clearly having just got out of bed.

sungchan was the first to speak, slapping a hand over his mouth to stop his laughter,“holy shit, hyuck you look gross –“

grunting, donghyuck left the door wide open and walked deeper into the home, inviting the two inside with his unattentive gesture.

jisung removed his shoes and stepped in first, grabbing the basket from sungchan’s limp arm and wobbling over to the kitchen,”oh my god, your mom packed a full course meal for him.” he heaved slightly and dropped the basket on the counter as gently as he could.

donghyuck’s head perked up after hearing the word “meal” and instantly his tired attitude faded,”so that's what you two dumbasses are doing here so early on a sunday morning! _my_ dumbasses! ugh i’m so loved.” 

sungchan refrained from smacking the back of his head and set the table for him, rolling his eyes. “yeah yeah, you’ve been m.i.a so what choice did we have?”

jisung unpacked the basket, grabbing a bowl from the table and filling it with the fresh rice, gently laying the omelette on top of it. “let’s be nice to him, he’ll probably be stuck at home for two more weeks.”

“yeah _jung_ , let’s be nice.” donghyuck mocked, near cackingly once sungchan raised his hand and slowly dropped it at jisung’s expectant stare.

while jisung plated the side dishes, donghyuck began growing antsy and jolted up, bolting to the bathroom and shrieking about having to pee.

jisung took the chance to tap sungchan’s shoulder once their best friend was out of ears range, pursing his lips,”why? why’d you kiss me yesterday? i’ve never had friends before but i think i’m pretty sure that they don’t do _that_. and the whole affection thing? i’m confus —“

“i like you.”

“oh. _oh_ ” jisung’s eyebrows raised in shock at the confession and quickly looked away to hide the shy red climbing up his neck.

“i like you too.”

he could see sungchan start to smile from his peripheral vision and tightly shut his eyes, trying to bite back the smile itching to etch itself onto his own lips.

“so, you’ll be mine then?”

“… yes.”

donghyuck came from the corner of the hall, hooting like a rowdy teen at their first party and jisung froze in his spot, opening his eyes to shakily look anywhere but his best friend.

“what’d i tell you? i told you to just go for it dude. now everyone's happy.” donghyuck rolled his eyes impishly and plopped into his seat once more, tearing into the dishes and giving moans of approval to the two.

jisung’s eyebrows furrowed slightly, feeling left out upon hearing donghyuck’s previous statement,“w – i’m confused what’s going on?”

“hyuck planned the whole breakfast thing out so i could y’know.. make a move. i'm sorry, do you feel betrayed?” sungchan spoke worriedly and perked up in his seat.

unable to get upset at his now official boyfriend, jisung just punched sungchan’s arm gently and sat down,”so the whole dry group chat thing was a part of the plan?”

donghyuck’s head shot up from being so deep into the plate and chewed what he had in his mouth before speaking,”actually no. my mom said being on my phone all day would slow down recovery so it’s in her possession until i go back to school. can you believe this? how else am i going to keep up with all the _hottest_ drama?” 

“you’re so damned nosy, lee donghyuck!” sungchan snorted and stood to grab some juice from the fridge, pouring donghyuck a cup and waterfalling the rest from the carton.

jisung soon found himself distracted as donghyuck seemed to be just fine with using his left hand even with his right in an uncomfortable cast and quickly pointed it out in awe.

“woah, you’re ambidextrous?”

donghyuck gulped down some juice before answering back cockily,”nah i’m just talented.”

“he learned so he could –“

“don’t corrupt him!”

“it’s funny!”

jisung tuned the bickering pair out, reaching over to drink the rest of donghyuck’s unwanted juice and trying to focus on his motives for the week.

“jisung ah, i heard you went skating yesterday,” donghyuck redirected the conversation skillfully and used his free hand to pinch his cheek softly.

he sighed falling limp in his chair at the memory and instantly jolted up at the memory of sungchan catching him before he fell.

“yeah of course i remember. i almost broke my damn back!” jisung played it off, choking with laughter at sungchan and donghyuck’s ugly laughter.

“...so do you have photos?”

“hyuck!”

“what! its hilarious!”

—

after long minutes of catching up and just talking about life, jisung noticed that donghyuck had been done eating and pulled out his phone suggesting that they take pictures to notify people that he wasn’t “dead”.

donghyuck quickly agreed and stuck up a peace sign, sungchan making a checkmark under his chin while jisung smiled widely.

ah capturing moments with the homies. his favorite passtime!

jisung sent the different photos to the group chat, editing them with filters and uploading them to his instagram page instantly. 

a red dot appeared in his mentions moments after and tauntingly stared back at him for a few long seconds before he gave in and curiously clicked at the profile that had requested to follow him.

he looked up to see if sungchan and donghyuck were occupied before leaning back in his seat and accepting the six hour old request that ended up being from chenle.

 _let’s see what i can get with this._ jisung thought to himself, grinning back up at his friends and moving upstairs when they agreed that it was getting tiring sitting in chairs.

—

very soon, it reached late afternoon and the injured male is sleeping soundly, swaddled in a blanket while jisung and sungchan quietly slipped outside and stepped into their shoes.

sungchan noticed the loud buzzing that filled up the silence and stood upright, whispering,“your phone keeps buzzing, maybe you should get it.”

“nah it’s fine, i’ll check when i get home.” he whispered back, cursing in his brain that it just had to be his aunt again.

once they stepped off of the lee property they walked onto the main road together and paused on the sidewalk, hugging each other close.

“see you tomorrow?”

“tomorrow.” jisung replied, breaking away and turning to wave another goodbye to sungchan.

walking off, jisung turned a street corner and took a different route home. paranoid that sungchan might be following him. 

jisung’s phone buzzed yet again in his pocket at that same moment and irritated him when he saw the caller id. 

swiping the screen until it reached green, he spoke in a low hushed tone,” yeah, i should've took my charger. my phone died and it was too late to come back home so i just spent the night at sungchan’s.”

trudging slowly and kicking desolate pieces of road on the ground, the shadow of two figures sped past the corner of his eye.

now speeding up his pace, jisung’s heart began to hammer harshly in his chest cavity,“don’t make dinner tonight, we’ll order out. i have the money.”

the feeling of being followed felt even stronger until after he made it inside of the gate to his home so he looked through a tiny pupil sized hole in the covering and peered up and down the street.

when not discovering anyone, he sighed to himself and turned to take off his shoes, jumping and squeaking when his aunt was standing there in front of him.

“you scared me!”

her brow raised at his panicked body language and reached out to pat his head reassuringly, mumbling about how “ _teens these days were out of it._ ”

entering the home now barefoot, jisung felt the lingering feeling of eyes burning into his back as he shut the front door and locked it up.

“did he see us?” an unknown voice ponderously mumbled out from the other side of the gate.

“don’t think so. let’s head back home. that nasty human food did a number on me.” donghyuck stretched his arms above his head, his perfectly good right hand clenching down in the air tiredly.


End file.
